Springfield Armory National Historic Site

The Springfield Armory National Historic Site was the primary center for the manufacture of US military firearms from its inception in 1794 until its closing in 1968. It was declared a National historic site in 1974, featuring the world’s largest collection of firearms and edge weapons, with a total collection of more than 12,000 items – 8,500 firearms, 500 edge weapons and 3,500 archeological objects – as well as a library collection of more than 1,500 books and more than 500,000 archive documents and images. Due to ongoing expansion over the years, the collection required a more effective storage solution that would allow curators to consolidate and better protect storage environments with state-of-the-art climate control and security. By utilizing custom-designed high-density mobile storage solutions from Systematics, they were able to condense storage areas and greatly improve preservation integrity.

CHALLENGE : Firearms were previously located in three different storage areas throughout the museum building, making it difficult to keep safe watch over the valuable inventory. Museum curator, James Roberts wanted to develop a storage approach that focused on the long-term well-being of the collection by consolidating the storage areas.

SOLUTION : High-density mobile storage was employed throughout a new temperature and humidity controlled room with enhanced security, consolidating 26,000 sq. ft. of storage into approximately 10,000 sq. ft.. The new storage area brought more than 60% space savings, and reduced cubic space of renovation and the ongoing utility costs, a potential savings of nearly $1 million as compared to new construction.

A variety of storage solutions were employed to provide safe storage of weapons:

“We looked at many options before making our selection, but most options had too many exposed areas that could cause potential harm from vibration,” explained Roberts. “The custom-designed “T” bar solution offered a low-cost innovation that was far superior to the other products we evaluated.”

“Systematics has been wonderful to work with and very responsive to our needs,” stated Roberts. “They collaborated with us to find the exact array of products and custom fabrication to meet our storage requirements.”